FRIDAY
>> The Republik hosts Tritonal and its uplifting electronic sound
Trance music duo Tritonal brings its soaring, melodic electronic music to The Republik on Friday.
Texas music producers David Reed and Chad Cisneros formed Tritonal after meeting in an online music producing site in 2007. Their work soon attracted the attention of major figures in electronic dance music. Above & Beyond, a British group that played to enthusiastic audiences at the Waikiki Shell last year, featured one of Tritonal’s tracks on a compilation album on the Anjunabeats record label in 2008.
TRITONAL
>> Where: The Republik
>> When: 9 p.m. Friday
>> Cost: $30-$40
>> Info: 941-7469, jointherepublik.com
Tritonal’s debut album, “Piercing the Quiet,” featured several hits and marked the beginning of a collaboration with singer Cristina Soto, the first of several brightly voiced female vocalists whose sound gives Tritonal’s music a euphoric quality.
“Our goal is to mix uplifting and sometimes mysterious vocals with emotional melodies and gripping beats,” the duo told the website trance.nu. “We try to make each song unique in some way that will bring the listeners back for more.”
The duo reached the top of the Billboard Airplay Dance Chart with its 2013 track “Now or Never,” featuring Phoebe Ryan. The work received mainstream attention when it was used as intro music for CBS’ “Thursday Night Football” broadcast. Other hits include “Follow Me Home,” “Untouchable” and a remix of Adam Lambert’s “Ghost Town.”
SATURDAY
>> ‘Moana’ to be shown at Kapolei water park
Float off into film heaven with “Moana,” which opens the Dive’n‘Movie series at Wet’n‘Wild Hawaii on Saturday.
DIVE’N’MOVIE SERIES OPENING NIGHT: ‘MOANA’
>> Where: Wet’n’Wild Hawaii
>> When: Park opens 10:30 a.m.; film screens at about 6:15 p.m.
>> Cost: daily $39-$50; season passes $55-$75
>> Info: wetnwildhawaii.com
The Kapolei water park will screen two movies a month through Aug. 19 on Saturdays, plus one screening planned for the mid-October school break and another in mid-December for the holiday season. Watch from the pool deck or grab an inner tube and wallow in a wave pool — all the more appropriate for watching the story of an ocean-voyaging princess, voiced by Kamehameha Schools student Auli‘i Cravalho.
Wet’n‘Wild Hawaii is encouraging youngsters to dress up as princes or princesses for the evening, offering free admission to any child 12 years or under in costume and accompanied by a paying adult. There will be prize giveaways and other activities.
All movies will screen at about 6:15 p.m. Other scheduled movies: July 1, “The LEGO Batman Movie”; July 15, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”; July 29, “Saban’s Power Rangers”; and Aug. 19, “Beauty & The Beast.” Movies for Oct. 14 and Dec. 16 are to be determined.
SATURDAY-JUNE 25
>> Talented pianists’ music will fill convention center
The Aloha Piano Festival returns to the Hawai‘i Convention Center for a week of musical entertainment and education.
ALOHA PIANO FESTIVAL
>> Where: Hawai’i Convention Center
>> When: Competitions, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday; winners concert, 4 p.m. Sunday; finale, 4 p.m. June 25
>> Cost: Competitions free; winners concert $10; finale $30
>> Info: alohapianofestival.com
Now in its 12th year, local performer Lisa Nakamichi’s project has featured some of Hawaii’s finest young pianists in a day of student competitions, along with workshops and concerts with world-renowned performers.
This year’s visiting artists include island favorite Jon Nakamatsu, pictured, gold medalist in the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and Italian pianist Fabio Bidini, who gave an energetic reading of Ravel with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra in 2014. Both will give master classes during the week (check alohapianofestival.com for a schedule), and on June 25 they’ll perform in the festival finale, featuring chamber works by Schumann and Brahms. Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Iggy Jang and principal cellist Mark Votapek join in the music-making.
Throughout the festival there will be plenty of music to hear. The competitions begin early Saturday with grade-school students and stretch on throughout the day. Highlights include Hawaii’s Jairus Rhoades and Japan’s Hibiki Katayama playing in the high school division starting at 2 p.m.; and the 6:30 p.m. amateur division, which has grown to nine contestants from Japan, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco as well from Hawaii.
SUNDAY
>> Film celebrates life of musician who wowed isles
The late Betty Loo Taylor was Hawaii’s queen of the keyboard.
DOCUMENTARY: “THEY CALL HER LADY FINGERS: THE BETTY LOO TAYLOR STORY”
>> Where: Wisp Restaurant and Lounge, Lotus Hotel
>> When: 7 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $5
>> Info: 436-4326, wisphawaii.com
For decades the jazz pianist held court at many of Waikiki’s top hotels, including the Moana Surfrider and the Hilton Hawaiian Village. At Trappers at the Hyatt Regency, she was the longtime partner of “Hawaii’s gentleman of jazz,” Jimmy Borges, and played at his farewell appearance at the Moana Surfrider in January 2016.
Taylor was also a pioneer as a Chinese-American woman playing jazz, earning a reputation as one of the most colorful personalities during Hawaii’s golden age of jazz in the 1950s and ’60s. She received Na Hoku Hanohano awards for lifetime achievement and for her last recording, 2008’s “For All We Know,” an album of standards with singer Joy Abbott. Taylor died in December at age 87 after playing into her 80s.
“They Call Her Lady Fingers: The Betty Loo Taylor Story,” a 2003 documentary, tells the story of the natural talent — she had perfect pitch — who studied classical piano as a youngster but found her forte in jazz. The film screens Saturday at Wisp Restaurant and Lounge, in the Lotus Hotel on Waikiki’s Gold Coast. Dinner reservations are available.